


The Jock and the Pageant Queen

by SquareBeans



Category: The Wilds (TV 2020)
Genre: Another HS AU, F/F, Homophobia, and alcohol use, its going to be kinda ooc if im being honest like ill try my best but who knows at this point, mentions of drug use, theres gonna be some drug use and alcohol use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29290440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquareBeans/pseuds/SquareBeans
Summary: Toni can't stand Shelby. Especially after Shelby decided to ditch hanging out with them a few years ago. They're in their junior year, and Toni can't wait to finally be done with high school and to never see anyone there again, except for her bestfriend of course. But Shelby has other plans to get back into her friend groups life. She misses them, after all.
Relationships: Shelby - Relationship, Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe
Comments: 6
Kudos: 70





	1. Chapter 1

Toni Shalifoe slowly slid her eyes over the grey decaying school building that sat in front of her. She let her eyes wander over the dark blue doors. She let her eyes stop on the paint peeling from the corners, and just above the handle where people would grab onto it. 

“Andrew!” A girl giggled and shouted with a southern drawl. 

Toni turned her head towards the noise and saw a small group of friends standing around. She rolled her eyes when she realized who shouted. 

Shelby fucking Goodkind, with her perfect fucking boyfriend. 

Shelby was giggling and put a loose strand of blonde hair that fell out of her loose ponytail, behind her ear. She had a wide smile plastered across her face, showing off her pearly white teeth. 

As Toni was staring, Shelby turned to face the other girl, giving her a look that Toni couldn’t quite place, before she quickly turned back to her group of friends. 

Toni didn’t waver her eye contact from the group. She kept her focus stern and steady, eyes slowly tracing the shape of Shelbys jawline. She noticed the girl seemed more tense when her boyfriend put an arm around her shoulders. Toni let her eyes continue to scan the blonde girl, grimacing at the light purple v neck shirt that just barely shows off any cleavage. Her white pants seemed almost too bright for Toni to keep staring at. 

She rolled her eyes again at the sound of the blonde laughing over something, so she headed off and went right through the paint peeled doors. 

“Hey,” Toni saw her best friend, Martha Blackburn. “Where the fuck were you?” 

“I left early,” Martha looked at her friend and smiled sweetly. She tucked her brown hair behind her ears and sat down at a table, placing her pink backpack on the table in front of her. 

“I was fucking waiting for you,” Toni sat down next to her and dropped her black and red bag on the ground. 

“Sorry, I forgot to leave a note,” Martha shrugged and looked at her phone. “First day of school nerves.” 

“Yeah, same dude,” Toni sighed and crossed her arms on the table in front of her. “Can you believe we’re already juniors? We have two more years of this bullshit.” 

“You’re not going to miss it?” Martha kept her eyes on her phone, playing some kind of game. 

“Psh, fuck no!” Toni’s eyes were wide as she looked at her friend. “I fucking hate this place. There’s ‘little miss perfect’ whose boyfriend just has to make fun of me for being gay. Not to mention he literally wrote ‘dyke’ in red fucking paint on my locker. Then there’s the teachers who clearly all hate working here, or just hate their lives, I don’t know and I don’t give a fuck.” 

“There’s nothing wrong with Shelby, she’s a good person.”

“Yeah a person who hates me for being me.”

Martha rolled her eyes and looked up from her phone, “She’s not like them.”

“Then why won’t she even glance in my direction without looking like she wants to murder me?” Toni waved a hand in front of her face. “Hello? Earth to Martha? She fucking hates me for being gay. She probably gets off at the idea of somehow being able to rejuvenate me or some shit.” 

“Just talk to her, she’s not like that. She’s a good person.” Martha glanced back down at her phone and continued playing her game with the little popping noises and dings going off softly. 

“Hey,” a person sat down next to Toni and gently placed her bag on the ground. “You're still playing basketball this year, right?” 

Toni looked up at the girl that sat next to her and nodded, “Yeah, Rachel, why wouldn’t I? Shits my game. Why? You playing too?”

Rachel Reid nodded, “Fuck yeah I am. I’m not taking a break from anything this year. I’m going all out baby. Gotta look good on those college applications, ya know?” Rachel tied her hair up on top of her head. She stretched her arms out above her head. “I’m taking no breaks.” 

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Martha interjected. She looked down at her jeans. “Can’t that harm your body?” 

“Why does it matter?” Rachel’s voice raised slightly. “It’ll look good for these next two years, then I’ll be a shoe in for Stanford.” 

“You want to go to Stanford?” Toni spoke up. “Why do you want to go there?”

“Oh no,” Nora Reid, Rachel’s sister, sat down across from Toni. “Don’t get her into this again.” 

Martha smiled at Nora, “Hey, Nora!” 

“Hi Martha,” Nora waved. “Hi Toni.” 

“Hi,” Toni responded quickly, not taking her brown eyes off the other girl. “Why Stanford?” 

“They have the best chances at getting into the Olympics for competing for diving, I’m not taking any chances to let that go.” Rachel shook her head. “Hell no I’m not letting that go.” 

Nora pulled a book out of her green bag and placed it on her lap. She opened it to a random page and started reading it, ears focusing on the conversation, but eyes on the book. 

“Has anyone seen Fatin or Leah or Dot?” Martha spoke up, looking around the slowly crowding cafeteria. 

“I wonder if they’re fucking,” Toni wiggled her eyebrows and laughed. She earned a soft punch in the shoulder from Rachel. “What? I’m kidding. God, if they want to fuck on the side, then whatever let them.” She got another punch in the same shoulder, harder this time. “Fuck off!” Toni stood up, standing over the darker haired girl. 

“Toni,” Martha warned. “Remember what the principle said?”

“What? She fucking punched me!” 

“Yeah, but you started it,” Nora spoke up. 

“Why are you all attacking me now? Seriously, what the fuck?” Toni sat back down with a loud plop. 

“Be nice,” Nora spoke softly, looking up from her book. 

“Whatever,” Toni huffed and looked away from the table. Her eyes caught blonde hair and she focused on it. 

Toni felt her body tense up when green eyes met hers. Her jaw clenched and she forced herself to stay looking directly into those eyes. 

Shelby smiled and wiggled her fingers at Toni. 

Toni’s jaw clenched. She felt like she was being taunted, like Shelby just wanted her to run up to her and say something. Toni wanted to, she wanted to run right up to Shelby’s perfect fucking face and say so many things about her life style and how shitty she thinks it is for hating someone like her for absolutely no reason at all. Remembering what Martha mentioned earlier.

Before summer ended, the principle had called Martha’s mom to explain a situation to her about Toni. She hasn’t been the most ideal student at school, and things were, apparently, getting out of hand. Which, to be honest, Toni knows that but she really doesn’t care. She knows she should because if she does one more big thing that’ll send her to the principal's office, she’s going to get expelled. Being calm was not a big part of who Toni was, she just had to tone it down… somehow. 

___

Toni scanned the room of her first class and found an empty seat in the middle by a window. She quickly rushed over there and sat down in it, forcing the chair to make a loud noise. 

Most of the other students turned to look at her, but some didn’t care at all and kept their heads down on their desks. 

“I gotta go.” 

Toni groaned audibly when she heard the southern accent of a one and only Shelby Goodkind right in front of the opened room door. 

A few students looked at her again. 

Shelby walked through the door and looked around the room, eyes slowly trailing for any opened spots.

Toni shrank down in her seat, avoiding eye contact and dreading the open seat next to her. There were only a few seats opened, all had at least one other student sitting at the tables. 

Shelby slowly made her way down to Toni’s table and gently placed her book bag over the seat next to Toni and slowly sat down. She pulled out a notebook and a pen out and gently set them down in front of her. 

Shelby turned towards Toni and smiled sweetly, “Hi. I know we met freshman year, but I don’t think we have ever officially had a real conversation before.”

Toni stared at the girl, “Well, yeah thats because you hate my fucking guts.” 

“I don’t hate anyone.” 

“Whatever,” Toni leaned forward in her seat and put her elbows on the table, resting her head on them. “Your boyfriend sure does. You know he’s the one who wrote ‘dyke’ on my fucking locker?” 

“I don’t think he’d do that,” Shelby’s smile didn’t falter at the brunette’s words.

“Except, so many other people saw him doing it. Not to mention he was laughing about it and giggling his ass off once he saw me get to my locker.” Toni rolled her eyes. “Why’d you even sit next to me anyway?” 

“Well, I was hopin’ we could be friends?” 

“Why? Do you have a bet going on with someone or something? Or maybe you see me as some sort of charity case.” Toni wasn’t buying what Shelby was saying. The look the blonde was giving her made her feel uneasy, almost like she was taking pity on her for being herself. Toni wanted to wipe that smug expression off Shelby’s face. 

“Alright, I take it as that’s everyone,” An older man spoke in a monotone voice in front of the class, gently closing the door. “Let’s get started, shall we?” He clasped his hands together and pulled up a roll sheet, slowly calling off names. 

___

Lunch finally rolled around and Toni went to their normal hangout spot. She slightly smiled when she saw Leah, Fatin, and Rachel were standing around eating. 

“Hey, Toni!” Fatin raised her arms up and ran over to her friend, giving her a big hug. 

“Hey,” Toni smiled and hugged her back. “Where were you guys this morning?” She walked up to the group and set her bag down. 

“My parents wanted to talk to me about rules with my grades and the cello and my curfew,” Fatin rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone. “Which I have every intention of breaking.” She smiled widely at the group and started texting someone. 

“Honestly? I didn’t want to come.” Leah shrugged and took a bite of her food. “I enjoy school and all. Like, fuck, I enjoy learning… I just didn’t want to come.” 

Toni nodded and stuck her hand out in a fist bump, receiving the bump back, “I feel you. I’m over this place.” The brunette looked around. “Hey, where’s Marty, Nora and Dot?” 

Rachel shrugged, “Maybe they’re lost.” 

Leah snorted, “I doubt that. Nora’s, like, the reason this place is doing so well in the county. She can find her way out of an asshole if she wants to.” 

“You’re not wrong,” Rachel raised her brows and shrugged. “Maybe they’re getting food then?” 

“Nah, I doubt it. Her mom packed us both lunch, like she always does.” Toni took in a deep breath. “I just feel like something’s not normal. I don’t know, I’m probably overthinking this.” 

“I think they have the same AP Bio class right now, right?” Fatin said in between bites. 

There was a loud laugh causing the four girls to turn their heads towards the noise. 

Martha, Nora, and Shelby all appeared from behind a wall, laughing at something Shelby was saying. She was holding her phone up and pointing at something. 

“Hey guys!” Fatin jumped up and walked over to the three girls with her arms stretched out ready for a hug. “I haven’t seen you all summer. Come on!” She grabbed Martha’s hand and pulled her over to the group. “Tell me all about what you did, I’m dying to hear about anything than talk about when I was forced into a fucking band camp to practice playing my cello, like, a million hours a day.” 

Martha smiled and let the girl drag her to talk about their summer break. 

Toni was angry, she could feel her blood started to boil as she glared at Shelby. “Why the fuck are you here?” 

“What?” Shelby laughed awkwardly and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I haven’t really hung out with most of you guys for a while. I just figured I’d get to hang out with y’all again.” She let out a nervous laugh. 

“Yeah Toni,” Martha spoke up. “She hasn’t actually hung out with us in a while. I kind of missed her and the three of us share AP Bio this semester. She asked to hangout and I figured it wouldn’t be an issue.” 

“It’s not,” Rachel walked up next to Toni. “I’m cool with you hanging with us.” She waved her arm, indicating the girl to come over to their group. “Tell us about your summer.” 

Toni clenched her fists, “No!” She shouted, pointing a finger at Shelby. “I don’t want you here.” 

“Why?” Rachel turned towards Toni. “She’s been cool with us.” 

“Not me.”

“What do you mean, Toni?” Martha walked up to Shelby. 

“I fucking mean,” Toni took in a deep breath. “Her goddamn boyfriend torments me, and she doesn’t do shit about it.” 

“No she doesn’t,” Martha put her hand on Toni’s shoulder. “Just come hang out with us.” 

Toni crossed her arms and clenched her jaw. 

“Just get over yourself,” Nora spoke up, forcing heads to turn towards her. “I’m being serious. She wants to hangout with us again, I don’t see a problem with that. No one has any issues with her besides you for no reason.” 

“Whatever,” Toni grumbled and grabbed her bag. She opened it and sat down, leaning against a wall. She stared at the food, completely losing her appetite. 

“Hey guys!” Dot popped up. 

“Dot!” Fatin shouted with a wide smile plastered across her face. “Where the hell were you?” 

“I’ve been busy,” Dot beamed. “I managed to convince them to add my survival club. I’ve been planning out camping trips for when we get people who want to join. Pretty exciting, huh?” She raised her eyebrows and smiled widely. “You guys should join, it’ll be fun. Trust me, I don’t lie about this shit.” 

“I’d love to join,” Shelby spoke and walked up to Dot. “Where do I put my name down?” 

“What’s up Shelby? Haven’t seen you in a hot minute.”

“Yeah, I’ve been quite busy,” Shelby let out a small laugh. “I’ve been doin’ my pageant stuff still. I’m sure you know Andrew and I have been dating too.” 

“Yeah… yeah I heard about you and Andrew,” Dot’s smile slightly faltered. “How’s the pageant stuff going?” 

“It’s good!” Shelby said a bit too cheerfully. Her eyes went down to a grumpy looking Toni who was focusing on her shoes, not bothering to look at anyone. “Yeah, I’m enjoyin’ it a lot. I mean it's super competitive at times, but so far I have won all, but one.” 

“Oh yeah? Still kicking ass, I see.”

“Shelby, come tell me about your summer break!” Fatin shouted over the conversation. 

The blonde smiled and turned towards Fatin. She stopped her eyes on Toni, who was looking directly at her. “Let me tell you all about my family's house up in Cape Cod. 

___

“How was your day, Toni?” Martha walked up to her friend and put a hand on her shoulder, indicating it was time to head back home. 

“It was alright,” Toni stood up and started walking with her friend. 

“Did you have any classes with anyone else? It sucks I don't have any with you." 

"Yeah I had one with Dot and one with Rachel and Leah," Toni paused for a minute. "Marty, I really didn't fucking appreciate that you just invited Shelby to come hangout with us at lunch."

"Why? What's wrong with her? She's a nice person." 

"Yeah, well she fucking hates me, okay? It's bad enough she wants to be my partner in one of our classes, so I really don't want to hangout with a jesus freak if I can avoid it." 

"God Toni, maybe you're the hateful one," Martha scoffed at her friend. "You're being dramatic. Just talk to her, she's really cool." 

"Yeah… whatever. Everyone keeps telling me that, but I don't buy it one bit." 

Martha rolled her eyes and continued walking as they turned onto the streets she lives on. "Did you hear about the first day back party at Alex's? Fatin was telling me about it." 

"Yeah, I did. You want to go?"

Martha shrugged, "A little bit." 

"Fuck it, let's go. It's not a bad idea to get wasted the first night of school." Toni walked up a driveway and opened the front door to a small house. “Can you believe I got homework the first fucking day of school? And next week, I already have a project.” 

“Me too, I have so much to cram for,” Martha went to the kitchen and grabbed something from the fridge. 

“Hey, get me one of those chocolate milk things,” Toni laughed and dropped her bag on the floor by the kitchen table. “Those things are fucking bomb.” 

___

The music was loud, too loud. Toni could feel the bass of the music in her eardrums. She walked over to a keg and grabbed a red solo cup, filling it to the brim. She lost Martha somewhere on the way into the mansion like house filled with other people. 

“Toni! You made it!” Fatin was drunk, she slumped an arm over a sober Toni.

“You bet your ass I did,” Toni slipped out from under Fatin. “And you are very drunk.” 

“You bet your gawd damn ass I am biiitch,” Fatin slurred her words. “I am loooovin it!” 

Toni laughed and shook her head, “Well, it looks like someone is trying to get your attention over there.” Toni pointed in a direction of some guy that was waving Fatin over. 

“Oh babeeey!” She smiled and half walked half ran over to the stranger. 

Toni wandered away from her, very drunk friend. 

Toni looked around the place, noticing a chandelier hanging above a huge crowd with a couple of red cups sitting on it. She smirked at the thought of someone having to clean that up later. She continued to venture through the house, looking at the various different family photos and different types of paintings scattered all around. 

There was a loud bang in a room next to Toni and she slowly opened the bedroom door. 

There was a guy and a girl standing together, embraced with each other. They were clearly making out, completely oblivious to Toni standing in the doorway.

“Hey, close the fucking door!” The guy shouted, pulling away from the girl.

“Holy shit, Andrew?” Toni spoke when she recognized the guy that spoke.

“What do you want, dyke?” He spoke to her in a disgusted tone. “Unless…” His tone changed. “You want to watch… or figure out if you’re not a lesbian after all, huh?” He lowered his hands from the other girl.

“Fucking gross!” Toni’s face had a look of disgust. “Fuck off, asshole. Don’t you have a girlfriend?” 

“You’re not going to tell her, are you?” Andrew took a step towards Toni.

“Why shouldn’t I?” 

“Because I’ll kick your ass, I’m down to hit a girl. Especially someone of your stature.” Andrew smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You’re fucked up, dude. If she’s at this party, I’m going to direct her right to you.” Toni glared at him, not stepping down. 

“Fuck you, dyke,” He slammed the door shut with a loud bang causing a bunch of passerby’s glance over in Toni’s direction.

Some girl giggled as she walked by.

“What the fuck do you want?” She turned towards the girl, pointing a finger at her chest.

“Nothing, just figured someone with your rep, you’d at least be able to get laid by someone, you know, before they slam the door in your face.” The girl smirked.

“It’s not a girl for me, you asshole.”

“Whatever you say,” The girl walked off, waving a hand behind her as she walked away.

Toni grumbled and continued to walk throughout the house, looking for anyone she knew or even recognized. 

There was a loud giggle that caused Toni to snap her head to the side, immediately recognizing where it came from. 

Shelby was giggling with some girl, probably from one of her classes. 

Toni's mood immediately got worse. 

She paused and stared at the girl, eyes wandering over the blondes face. Toni bit her lip and took a step forward. "Shelby!" She shouted working her way towards the two girls. "Hey, Shelby!" She got closer, weaving through the crowd. "Shelby!" 

The blonde finally noticed the shorter girl and smiled sweetly at the approaching girl. 

"Hey, Toni." 

"Yeah, hi. You know your boyfriend is about to fuck another girl in some room, right?" Toni was shouting over the noise of the music and the people around them. 

"Listen, I know you don't like him, but he's a good guy." Shelby put her hands on Toni's shoulders. "You don't have to try and spread rumors about someone you don't like." 

"I couldn't give a fuck about him, but I know what I saw and it was definitely him in the room with some chick. Fuck, we even had a conversation about it." Toni shrugged off Shelby's hands and took a step back. "You don't have to believe me, but I know what I saw."

"You know," Shelby took a step towards the girl and lowered her voice. "Andrew really is a good guy." 

"Other than he calls me a dyke every fucking day, sure whatever you say." Toni rolled her eyes and turned around, intending to walk off and go get wasted to forget all about what happened. 

After some time wandering around, Toni spotted Martha talking to some guy. She walked up to her friend and awkwardly stood off to the side. 

"Hey Toni," Martha noticed her friend and smiled. 

"Hey, can you believe Shelby's boyfriend is fucking cheating on her?" Toni didn't wait for a response. "I mean I even told her what a scumbag he is. Fuck, dude, I hope everyone told her. I hope the girl he's fucking tells her." 

"If you hate her so much, why does it matter to you?" Martha turned back to the guy she was talking to. 

"That's not the point, Marty. It's about morals."

"And you have some?" 

"More than that asshole," Toni scoffed and turned away from her friend, facing a large crowd. "Whatever, I'm going to get shitfaced. Later."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dont have an upload schedule just kinda doing it as I go

"Why can't you just be nice to her, Toni?" Martha whined as they walked towards the school entrance. 

"Because she has bad intentions, I just fucking know it," Toni rubbed her eyes, still waking up from another early morning. "She purposely sat next to me in class, just so she could be a bitch about something. Like, fuck, Marty, she literally ditched us at the beginning of sophomore year just to avoid being seen with me, or some shit." 

Martha rolled her eyes and headed towards their group of groggy looking friends. 

Leah gave a small wave as the two girls walked up to them, "Hey." 

"Hi," Toni looked the girl up and down. "You okay? Looks like you didn't sleep at all last night." 

"I feel like I didn't. My parents decided to try and talk to me about my 'funk' or whatever they called her." Leah rolled her eyes and scoffed. "They think hours of family time with movies and board games will make me feel so much better." 

"That fucking blows," Toni nodded at Leah and sat down at the table they were at. 

“Hey guys!” Shelby came up to the group and made eye contact with everyone, but her eyes lingered longer on Toni. 

“Hey, Shelby!” Nora was the first to speak up, looking up from the notebook she was writing in. “I’m honestly a little surprised you’re hanging out with us this early.”

“Yeah, it is, isn’t it,” Shelby’s smile radiated and she sat down next to Toni. 

Toni awkwardly moved her body away, facing her knees away from the blonde. 

Shelby spread her legs a little, forcing herself to touch Toni.

“Seriously?” Toni turned towards the girl. 

“Hm…?” Shelby hummed sweetly and raised her brows. 

The brunette was getting annoyed, and it was obvious. She rolled her eyes and got up, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. “What is your fucking problem?” 

“What?” Shelby put her elbow on the table, placing her head in her hand. 

“Stop fucking acting like you’re super sweet and innocent all the goddamn time. You hung out with us, like, what? Once or twice before you decided you were too good for us or some bullshit.”

“That’s not true,” Fatin piped up. “We’re like… the weirdest group of people here. Like, what? I’m one of the most popular girls at this school. Nora is a freaking genius and tutors damn near everyone. You and Rachel are easily the top athletes in this school. Fuck dude, Dot is like, the biggest handyman here. She knows more about fixing shit here than our own janitor.” Fatin paused and looked at Leah. “Hell, Leah is like, the go to person for dealing with personal shit. She’s like the school therapist. And everyone loves Martha, like seriously, how can you not?” Fatin paused for a minute. “Plus, Shelby’s hung out with all of us more than once or twice.” She shrugged and went back to her phone.

“I never realized I was the school therapist. Maybe I should start charging.” Leah looked at Fatin and gave a soft smile. 

“Hell yeah you are,” Fatin smiled widely back at Leah. 

“Yeah man,” Dot raised her hand. “You’re the only one who seems upset about anything. I think it's cool that she willingly wants to hangout with us. Don’t get me wrong, it's a bit weird that it was just sudden with no, like, warning or anything, but it's still pretty cool.” Dot nodded towards Shelby. “It’ll be nice to hang out with you outside of class or projects.” 

“See?” The blonde looked up at Toni with an intensity in her eyes. “No one else has a problem with it but you.” 

“Why am I suddenly the bad guy?” Toni glared at Shelby. “You fucking left us after the first goddamn day. We’ve been here the entire time.”

“Life happens, just let it go,” Dot spoke up again. “And like Fatin said, she has spent time with most of us.”

“That doesn’t make any sense! Why did she just up and ditch me then? Or is her goal to hangout with the charity case? Especially since it's our junior year, college applications really check out this year.” Toni looked between Dot and Shelby. “Are we going to look good on your college applications, huh? ‘Hung out with the foster kid and helped her in class. Hung out with minorities because they seemed to need a token perfect pageant queen friend.’” Toni did air quotes as she said the last part in a very sarcastic tone. 

Shelby scoffed, “I am bar far perfect, and I am no pageant queen.” 

“How are you not? You all you do is fucking pageants. You fucking win them all!” Toni felt her blood boiling.

“You are so far from how everything is,” Shelby stood up, towering over Toni. 

Toni glared and took a step towards the other girl, not giving in. “I don’t care how your life is, your fucking boyfriend is a dick to me, and you let him. You probably think the same about me.”

“You are so wrong.”

Before Toni could get another word in, the bell rang, dismissing the girls from their table as everyone dispersed towards their first class of the day. 

“Let it go, Toni,” Martha turned towards her friend, walking backwards when she noticed Toni hadn’t budged, even though Shelby was already heading off into another direction. 

___

“So, I was thinkin’” Shelby spoke to Toni about their upcoming project. “Maybe we could do a diorama of the Taj Mahal?” 

“Whatever, I’m only forced to be in this stupid group project with you because you sat next to me, not because I want to be.” Toni tossed her pen onto the table in front of them. She turned towards the blonde and gave a bitter smile. “Maybe if you take all the credit, it’ll look great on your college applications so you don’t have to say you hung out with the charity case.” 

“Toni, will you stop with that?” Shelby grabbed a notebook from her bookbag. “Seriously, it’s gettin’ old. That’s not even why I stopped hanging out with you guys. In fact, I tried to actually get your attention at some point because everyone else was able to willingly talk to me during class or outside of school. Like, seriously girl, get over it.” She opened the notebook and started writing something down before pulling the corner of the paper off and sliding it over to Toin. “Here’s my number, call or text me whenever you decide you want to put effort into this with me, or I’m really going to keep your name off of it.” 

"Why should I even message you? So you can get my number and show your stupid fucking boyfriend so he can taunt me even more?" Toni took the paper and crumpled it into a ball. "I still can't believe you think I'm lying about that party last week." Toni looked at Shelby, scanning for any sign of weakness with the comment she just made. The shorter girl realized how tired the blonde looked, and slumped in her chair. "Whatever." She unraveled the paper. "I'll message you later."

"He's not a… terrible guy," Shelby spoke softly, thinking of the right thing to say. "My parents like him a lot, and he can be supportive when he wants to be." 

"Yeah, well, maybe you should talk to him about the way he treats other people, including you." Toni took her phone out and started typing in Shelby's number, sending her a quick text. 

"I'll try."

"He still cheated on you, by the way."

Shelby took in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before slowly letting it out between her lips. "Whatever you say." 

___

Lunch finally rolled around and Toni was excited. It meant she had three more classes for the day, and she was building up the courage to ask Martha's mom if she could help pay for potential kickboxing classes while she waits for the basketball season to start. She was also excited for indian tacos. Something she could eat all day everyday and she would gladly admit it to anyone who asked. 

"Did y'all join Dots club yet?" Shelby was sitting on the ground eating some kind of salad. 

"No," Toni said as she sat down far away from the blonde. 

"Guess I forgot to tell you," Martha shrugged. "I signed us both up."

"Marty!" Toni gave her friend a look. "I'd at least appreciate if you fucking told me before hand. I'd like to know what kind of club I'm getting into before you decide." Truth be told, Toni didn't mind that her friend did that. She was actually kind of glad Dot has a survivalist club going on. She loved camping and the outdoors. Hiking and running became a habit of Toni's to help blow off steam. Especially when she was in the foster system before Martha's mom went through the long process of adopting her. 

"I'm actually really glad you're all willing to sign up," Dot dropped her bag and sat down next to Martha, crossing her legs. 

"Wait, I never signed up," Nora looked around at the group, setting her sandwich on top of her backpack. 

"Oops," Rachel shrugged and quickly shoveled some chips into her mouth. 

"Yeah, the outdoors isn't really my thing. I kinda prefer… television." Leah looked at Dot.

"I signed you up for you," Dot smiled at the girl.

"I don't think I really want to do it, though."

"Too bad," Fatin wiggled her fingers at Leah. "I told Dot I'd go, and welp I'm doing it too." 

"Holy shit, think you'll survive without your phone for a few days?" Toni laughed as she took a huge bite of food. "I bet you'll last a good thirty seconds." She said in between mouthfuls. 

"First of all, finish eating before you talk. Second of all, I plan on bringing my phone and enjoying all my time on social media." Fatin turned towards Dot. "We will be in some kind of cabin with wifi, right?"

Dot snorted, "Hell no! We're literally going to be in the middle of nowhere. Granted it will be on a campground, but there's still risk." 

“No!” Fatin’s eyes widened, realizing her mistake. “Can I take my name off the list?”

“Hell no, what’s on there is final! There’s actually a few other people who signed up too.” 

“Ha, yeah Fatin, you’re going to be stuck with no signal like the rest of us,” Toni said with a mouthful of food.

“You really should finish chewin’ before you talk,” Shelby made a snide remark towards Toni.

Toni took a huge bite of food and started mumbling, looking pointedly at Shelby in order to annoy her. 

When Shelby grimmanced and turned her head in disgust, Toni smiled triumphantly and continued eating her tacos. 

“You are joking, right?” Fatin continued 

“No, why would I joke about that? I’m going to teach you guys to build a fire, and how to build shelter. It’ll be loads of fun.” Dot opened her lunch bag and looked into it before slowly pulling out an apple and taking a huge bite.

“Oh, just splendid,” Fatin’s tone was dripping with sarcasm.

“So, Shelby,” Leah turned towards the blonde. “Why are you hanging out with us again?” 

Everyone turned to look at Leah.

“What? I’m just curious.” 

“I don’t know, really. I just kind of felt like I really wanted to get to know your little group of friends,” Shelby took a bite of her food before continuing with the conversation. “Y’all seem like you have fun so often during school events, I just wanted to have real friends, of my own. N-Not that I don’t have friends.” She let out an awkward laugh. “Just, most of the people I hang out with are Andrew’s friends.”

Toni snorted but didn’t say anything.

Shelby gave Toni a stern look. 

“As I was sayin’, I figured I’d get to really know you guys, since last time I didn’t really try to know you guys outside of school.” 

“Yeah, why did you abandon us super early on, Shelby?” Toni poked at the blonde.

“Things came up.”

“What kind of things? A douche bag homophobic boyfriend agenda?” 

“Toni,” Martha warned. “Stop.”

“No, I’m being serious. Why are you guys okay with her suddenly hanging out and being friendly with us? We didn’t exist to her for two years before.” 

“Toni,” Martha warned again. “Stop or go cool down.”

“Why do I have to do it all the time?”

“Maybe because your entire personality is being angry,” Shelby kept voice even. Her eyes were focused on Toni, but her expression gave nothing again. 

“You don’t fucking know me, you don’t get to say anything about me,” Toni stared back at Shelby, anger in her voice, but she wasn’t looking away. She liked a challenge after all.

“I don’t have to know you to know how many fights you get into.”

“Fuck you, Shelby!” Toni stood up and grabbed her food. 

“She’s not wrong,” Fatin said under her voice, loud enough for Leah to hear, causing her to snicker.

“You do need to chill,” Rachel kept her eyes away from Toni. “Using your anger on the court is where it's at. You win games for us, but you letting it out for no goddamn reason is really annoying.” 

“Why are you all against me? I’ve been your friend for a long ass time, way longer than miss perfect over here has been.” Toni pointed at Shelby as she spoke. “She’s seriously probably only here to get dirt on us or something.”

“Will you let that go already?” Martha stood up, standing her ground. “She wants to be our friend or she would have left the second she realized you always hangout with us.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Toni could feel a lump forming in her throat.

“Just,” Martha took in a deep breath, realizing what she said. “Sit down, calm down, don’t talk. I don’t care. Let her hangout with us, or go find somewhere else to hangout.”

Toni stared at Martha for a minute before setting her backpack back down. 

“Don’t mean to burst your little party that’s going on over here, but I have been invited to a bonfire this weekend, and I’m inviting you all.” Fatin turned her phone around to show the group a text she received. “I’ll text you all the details, okay? Oh, Shelby, we have to add you to our group chat.” 

Toni groaned in protest, but didn’t say anything. 

Martha gave Toni a look. 

“Hey,” Toni looked at Shelby, speaking quiet.

“Yeah?” Shelby raised an eyebrow.

“Thanks for not sitting next to me in our math class.”

“I figured one class of dealin’ with me was enough for you,” Shelby smiled, showing off her white teeth. “History seems like a good class to get to know you better, anyway. There’s a lot of projects in that class, I heard. Group projects.”

Toni bit her lip and nodded, letting her eyes wander down to the other girl's lips before she realized what she was doing. She quickly glanced up and nodded, not bothering to say anything.

___

The weekend came faster than anticipated. With both Toni and Shelby actually cooperating and working on their school project in the library, throughout the week, Toni was surprised at how much she was able to tolerate Shelby during that time. 

They split everything evenly when it came to building the diorama, and it actually looked pretty good. They had looked up some pictures of the Taj Mahal and printed out several at different angles. 

Toni wasn’t really surprised when Shelby took home the project and it came back with an almost life-like river surrounding the place, along with the middle. Toni brought most of the stuff, the base, which was just a piece of cardboard, some foam to build the building itself, and the paint. She had pieced together the actual building and cut out the little pieces of it, mostly because Shelby mentioned she hated the sound of foam ripping and being cut. 

“It makes me cringe!” She had held her hands out when Toni brought the object up.

“What? It's just foam?” Toni was confused and looking at the blocks of white foam in her hands. She gently squeezed it, causing a high pitched noise coming from the thing.

“No! It makes my teeth feel weird, I don’t know how to explain it.” Shelby shuttered and tensed her body up. “Just… you make it, let me make the things that don’t involve the foam. I’ll give you an idea of the areas I need free from that horrid stuff.” 

“Shelby,” Toni had looked at the blonde girl with the most serious expression she had on her face. “It is literally an inanimate object. It can’t harm you.” 

“Toni, please, stop…” Shelby covered her ears as the shorter girl squeezed the stuff again. “Stop, it makes me want to shutter.” 

Toni laughed and pretended to squeeze the stuff again causing Shelby to reach out and grab Toni’s wrist with a very serious expression plastered across her face.

“I’m not kiddin’.” 

Toni nodded and cleared her throat, “Right, well I’ll sorta build it… I guess. I’m not very good at this stuff, so don’t expect it to look good or anything.” 

Shelby had just shrugged, “As long as I don’t have to make anything with that stuff.” 

Once Toni brought the project back to school, and they met in the library, Shelby was actually in awe with how good it looked. 

“This is actually really good, Toni,” Shelby was looking around the project, not touching it at all though. “I’m bein’ serious, it’s really good.”

“It’s alright,” Toni shrugged nonchalantly. 

“We have an artist on our hands,” Shelby smiled at Toni. A genuine smile. 

Toni felt her heart start to race a little bit, “Whatever. It’s your turn to do the rest though.” 

Shelby nodded and grabbed the project by the cardboard base and brought it home that day. 

On Friday, when they met up in the library after school to go over last minute presentation stuff and any last minute fixes, Shelby looked stressed. She wasn’t able to maintain a calm composure or get her mind focused on what Toni was saying.

“Shelby?” Toni had repeated her name for the third time. “Hello? Is your brain in there or did you leave it at home?”

“Huh?” Shelby snapped back to reality. “Sorry, I was distracted.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Not really.”

Toni shrugged and looked around the diorama and went over some notes she had written down. “Do you think we need to fix anything? Looking at the reference pictures it looks like there’s too many trees.” Toni looked up at Shelby, who wasn’t paying attention and putting her hair up into a loose bun. “Shelby?”

“Huh? Sorry, I’m just distracted.” The blonde quickly finished putting her hair up and grabbed her phone. “I don’t think I can make it to Fatins bonfire tomorrow night.” 

“What? Why?” Toni put her pen down and closed her notebook with a muffled slap. “You said you’d go.” 

“Yeah, but I’m usually the designated driver. It gets kinda borin’ if you ask me.” 

“So? Then drink?” Toni leaned forward on the table. “No ones forcing you to be the driver.” 

“It’s not somethin’ I can do though.” 

“Why? Is it against your religion?” 

“Well, yes, but also no?” Shelby looked confused at the question. 

“Why no?” 

“Because I don’t follow it, entirely…” Shelby trailed off and bit her lip as she scrolled through something on her phone. “At least, my daddy thinks I follow it really well. I think Andrew won’t be there either.”

“Ditch that fucker. You two aren’t joined at the hip, you know.” Toni leaned back in her chair. She put her feet on the edge of the table and lifted the seat so it was only on its back two legs. 

“I’m gonna laugh when you fall,” Shelby smirked at the girl's relaxed position.

“I won’t fall. Come to the party, fuck life right now. It’s about having fun.” Toni pushed her limits and leaned back farther in the chair. 

“Are you seriously inviting me somewhere? You actually want me to go?” Shelby got up from her chair and did a quick stretch with her arms at her sides and twisting her upper torso. 

“Why not?” Toni slammed the seat forward. “You’re becoming more tolerable. It doesn’t mean I like you or want you to hang out with me and my friends, but I can tolerate you a lot more than I could at the start. But I think its mostly because I have to because we’re fucking group partners because you literally forced your way into my fucking life.”

“I didn’t force anythin’,'' Shelby smiled sweetly and sat back down. “How ‘bout this…” Shelby trailed off for a second before focusing back on Toni’s blank expression. “Go as far back as you can and if you don’t fall, I’ll go, and if you fall, I’ll still go, but you have to hang out with me the entire time.” 

Toni squinted at the blonde and stuck her hand out, “Alright, deal.” 

Shelby took the girls hand and gently shook it, “Deal.”

Toni leaned the chair back on its back legs. She had her feet on the ground and she looked at her black and white chucks. Toni slightly stuck her tongue out as she tested her limits for how far back she can go back. Her heart started to race when she felt the chair slip for a second but she quickly grabbed onto the table. 

“Ah, no falling,” Shelby teased and wiggled her fingers.

“Shut up, I’m focusing.” 

Shelby leaned back in her chair causing it to creak due to the weight shift. 

“Sh!” Toni half whispered. 

The brunette slowly lifted one foot off the ground and put it on the edge of the table with one hand still on the corner. Carefully she lifted her other foot off the ground and put it on the edge while slowly taking her hand off the table. 

“Ha!” Toni shouted with a bright smile.

Shelby stared at the girl.

Toni’s eyes went wide as she felt the chair slipping and before she could react, almost as if in slow motion, she fell backwards, hand barely missing the edge of the table. 

“Fuck,” Toni grumbled laying on the ground.

“Ha!” Shelby stood up, knocking her own chair over. 

“Goddammit,” Toni stood up. She wiped her back off and pulled her chair up while avoiding eye contact with Shelby. “Yeah yeah, fuck you too. You won.” 

“You bet your butt I did!” Shelby was a lot more excited than she was willing to admit, but it clearly showed at the tone of her voice. “Do you want a ride?” 

“Huh?” Toni looked at the blonde. 

“A ride home. I figured Martha had already walked home by now.” Shelby pulled her keys out of her pocket. “Andrew’s probably at practice and I hate watching football if I’m being honest.” She grabbed her bookbag from the ground and headed towards the exit of the school library. “Well?” She paused and turned her head towards Toni.

“Oh, yeah… thanks,” Toni grabbed her own backpack and the project and followed the blonde girl. “You don’t have to do this.” 

“It’s fine, you live near me anyway.” 

“How do you know where Martha lives?” 

“I’ve dropped her off at home several times before,” Shelby held the door open for Toni. 

“Right.” Toni looked down at their shared project. “Hey, do you think I can fit this in my locker?”

Shelby snorted and shook her head and she closed the library door behind her.

___

It was finally Saturday. That meant the party was happening soon, and Toni wasn’t thrilled. She didn’t want to be holding hands with Shelby and following her everywhere she wanted to go. 

Toni wanted to do her own thing. Mostly sit at the sides and stare from a distance because it's how she felt most comfortable. Sometimes random girls from their school, or a different school, would come up to her and try to flirt with her, but Toni didn’t care enough about that. Most of the time she’d shrug them off and just continue doing her own thing. 

But with Shelby, Toni figured she was going to be forced into the party and socialize with everyone. 

Because that’s exactly who Shelby is, a social butterfly who just has to have interaction with everyone. At least she won’t be with her douchebag boyfriend tonight. 

“Hey!” Martha opened Toni’s bedroom door. “I heard mom’s going to let you do kickboxing.” Martha sat on the edge of Toni’s bed. “Sounds dangerous.”

Toni shrugged and crossed her legs, “It’ll help me stay in shape for basketball season.” 

“Yeah, but can’t you get really hurt?”

“Who the fuck cares? It’ll be fun anyway.” 

“If that’s what you want to do,” Martha stood up from the bed. “Shelby said she’ll give us a ride to the party.” 

“What?” Toni quickly got off the bed. “I thought Fatin was supposed to pick us up.”

“Shelby offered and I told her she can.”

“What if she gets drunk? Who’s supposed to be our driver?” 

Martha laughed and shook her head, “Yeah, like Fatin wouldn’t get drunk, or ditch us to go to some guy's place. Come on, Toni.” Martha playfully shoved Toni’s shoulder. 

Toni groaned as her friend walked out of her room, gently closing the door. She leaned back and plopped herself onto her bed and put her hands over her eyes. “Fuck!” 

___

Shelby had pulled into a random dirt parking spot with several other cars. Her white BMW was not standing out from the various different luxury cars. 

“Remember our deal?” Shelby turned her body towards the second row to face Toni as Martha got out of the front. 

Toni glared at the blonde, not bothering to respond or react. She crossed her arms over her chest and held her gaze.

“Come on already!” Martha opened Toni’s door and grabbed the girl by the arm, forcing her out of the car. “It’s already starting!” She pointed towards a random car. “Fatin’s already here too.”

“I have to stick by Shelby’s side,” Toni kept her voice even.

“Why?”

Shelby giggled as she got out of the car, “She wants to protect me and keep me safe from underage drinkin’.” She wiggled her brows. 

“That’s not fucking true, but whatever, I guess.” 

As the party went on, Shelby had dragged Toni around, forcing her to interact with other people, against her will of course. Toni hated it and just wanted to go to the sidelines and have a few drinks. Shelby was not having that. It was clear that Shelby didn’t care much about underage drinking either. She had had more than her body weight in alcohol. 

Several times Toni had to take a red solo cup from the blonde girl in order to keep her from getting too wasted. 

“Slow down there, tiger,” Toni took another cup from Shelby’s hand.

Shelby pouted and reached her hand out for the drink, “Gimme!” Her southern accent was heavier the more and more drunk she got.

“I’m surprised you actually wanted to drink,” Toni pushed Shelby’s arm out of the way and set the cup on the ground. “You’re cut off.”

“You can’t tell me wh-what to do,” Shelby hiccuped. “I am older…” She put her finger on Toni’s chest. “...than you.” 

“Whatever, princess. You’re cut off though.” Toni started walking towards the outskirts of the forested area. “Come on.” Toni grabbed the drunk girl's hand and led her out. “Let’s just chill for a bit out here.” 

“Mmm…” Shelby let herself get gently pulled away from the crowd. “Why are you so calm?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“You’re normally…” Shelby trailed off losing focus. 

“Huh?” Toni stopped them and turned towards the other girl. “What am I normally?”

Shelby stared at the girl in front of her. She licked her lips and lowered her eyes, quickly glancing at Toni’s lips before catching herself. “Huh?” 

“What? You were the one talking then you trailed off.” 

Shelby wasn’t paying attention to anything Toni was saying. They were isolated enough for no one to really see what they were doing or where they were. Shelby took a step closer to a confused Toni. She put her hands on Toni’s shoulders and gently closed her eyes, leaning forward. 

Toni didn’t react, unsure what to do when she felt Shelby’s soft lips gently touch hers. After a few seconds of Shelby not pulling away, Toni leaned into the kiss, closing her eyes. 

Shelby suddenly pulled away and put a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and she turned around and ran off, going in the opposite direction of the party. 

“Shelby!” Toni shouted and started to follow the blonde. “Shelby! Wait!” 

Shelby could hear Toni’s shouts getting further away as she sprinted, quickly sobering up.

“Shelby! You don’t have to run!” Toni stopped running, panting hard. “Jesus fucking christ.”


End file.
